Louis Edet House’s change mantra

“This, (fellow country men and women), is the state of man: today he puts forth / the tender leaves of hopes, tomorrow blossoms /And bears his blushing honour thick upon him; / The third day comes a frost, a killing frost / and when he thinks, good easy man full surely / His greatness is a ripening, nips his root, / and then he falls as I do…”
The above quoted statement is attributed to Wolsey in the play entitled KING HENRY THE EIGHTH by William Shakespare. Wolsey’s words mirror the major musical chair (or change of guard if you like) which occurred at the Louis Edet House early this week. Louis Edet House, for those who may not know, is the headquarters of the Nigerian Police Force.
We are talking, needless to say, about the sudden exit of Suleiman Abba as Inspector General of Police and his no less sudden replacement with Solomon Arase. Until his rather dramatic elevation  ,Arase was the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID).
With barely five weeks to the end of the tenure of the present administration headed by President Goodluck Jonathan, if you had intimated Arase (or any other police Officer for that matter) that he would step into Abba’s shoes in the interval, he would probably have asked you to examine your thinking faculty.
The same applies to the then IGP Suleiman Abba. He, obviously, never had any inkling that he would be dethroned in a rather unceremonious manner prior to the May 29 handover day. If anything, Abba must have been putting “forth the tender leaves of hopes.”
To say that news of Suleiman Abba’s abrupt exit caught virtually everybody on the wrong foot, is to say the least. After all, there is barely one month to the end of this administration’s tenure. Bearing in mind that the incoming administration of General Mahammed Buhari would most probably appoint its own lieutenants (including heads of the Army, Navy, Police, Air Force etc) conventional wisdom had it that Abba and co would all step aside with President Jonathan after the handing over ceremony.
Conventional wisdom is however one thing, reality is a different ball game. And so it proved in the case of the legal expert and distinguished police officer called Suleiman Abba. Just as his greatness was a ripening (to borrow the inimitable words of that Shakesparen character); just as the curtain was about to be drawn on his remarkable career, the gentleman who mounted the saddle at Louis Edet House barely one year ago, was kicked out.
Ever since then, speculations have been swirling in respect of what might have been responsible for Abba’s abrupt descent from grace. Given that he was not implicated in any scandal in recent times (at least none which the public is aware of), not a few people are mystified by the whole thing.
While some speculated that he might have stepped on some very powerful toes, others attributed his fall to a possible fall–out with his principal. Some conspiration theorists even speculated that the ex–police chief had been guilty of double loyalty to both President Jonathan and the president–elect, retired General Muhammadu Buhari, hence he was summarily fired.
Since the purpose of this piece is not to conjure the reason or reasons for Abba’s exit, let’s leave that aside. Let us focus, instead, on the merits and demerits of the matter. On the merits, a number of commentators have pointed out that as the commander–in–chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic, Jonathan reserves the right to hire and fire his lieutenants whenever he so feels. In the opinion of this school of thought, since the buck stops at the president’s table, he is in the best position to determine the usefulness or otherwise of his appointees. To such folk, the little issue of the short time remaining between now and the end of Jonathan’s tenure does not matter.
To others, however, Abba’s less-than-glorious exit is not all that palatable. Equating it with the controversial manner the immediate past Chairman of the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) was sacked barely a few days after he had admonished government officials not to resist change, this school of thought contends that Mr. President was merely being petty and vindictive by removing the police boss so unceremoniously.
In their view, except the gentleman had committed some serious offence (which, they pointed out, has not been the case concerning Abba), the decision was an indiscretion with equanimity, more so there is only a few weeks for this administration to elapse. By sacking Abba as the IGP in such a rather rash manner, this school of thought believes Jonathan has acted more or less like a tin god rather than as statesman.
My concern is for the new acting IGP because for Abba, it’s a case closed. For how long would Arase be IGP? Maybe he would make history as the shortest serving IGP in the annals of the history of the Nigeria Police Force because he would most probably not be retained by the incoming government.